In a known flat-bed knitting machines of this type, the front and back carriage unit of the carriage apparatus comprises a single, and in particular multi-system, carriage. On such flat-bed knitting machines, in order to exploit the full width of the needle bed apparatus, two or more identical knitted articles can be made side by side; however, the carriage executes one stroke over the entire length of the needle bed apparatus. Although this is an advantage in terms of utilization of the machine width, nevertheless it is not an optimal solution, because each knitted article itself has a considerably lesser width.
In other flat-bed knitting machines, it is also known to embody the drive apparatus for the carriage apparatus reversibly, so that the carriage stroke can be adjusted for the width of a given knitted article to be made on the needle bed apparatus; this has advantages in terms of time, if the width of the knitted article in substantially less than the length of the needle bed apparatus.